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Monday, 2 June 2014

Vinyl Corner : In The Company of Serpents - Of The Flock (Album Review) (2)

Album Type :
Full Length

Date Released : 31/10/2013

Label :
Unsigned/Self Released

Of
The Flock, track listing :

1). Ash Swamp 01:08

2). Craven 05:47

3). Blood from Stone 10:41

4). Of The Flock 06:41

5). Untied / Culling Essence from
the Vod 07:56

The
Band :

Joseph Weller Myer | Drums

Grant Netzory | Guitars, Vocals

Review :

Having
been guilty of being submissive to the digital era for many years, the last 12
months has seen a shift in my attachment to music. For the better, I might add. I have embraced vinyl!!

In
no small part due to a thriving underground ‘doom’ scene, many artists have
taken a DIY approach to releasing music, borne from a desire to release music
on a format which many of them grew up with. On that basis, purchasing a vinyl
is directly giving back to the band or label.

During
an impressionable age, vinyl was my first experience of Black Sabbath, Frank
Zappa and many others, indeed the same can be said for many music fans my age
I’m sure. Nowadays, music has become a disposable
commodity in one sense, a piece of dental floss, you use it once, then you
throw it away. Perhaps, it has always
been the case, however the lack of substance to the digital age, means that new
generations of music lovers, perhaps never fully embrace music as a physical product
and don’t have memorable stories to share.
Who remembers the frustration of carrying portable CD walkman’s
around? Taking care to keep it flat, to
ensure it didn’t skip or the fact they were so cumbersome, it wouldn’t fit in
your pocket. The cassette tape who’s
sound quality would diminish after multiple playbacks over many years. Ah, the memories

Invariably
music follows trends in terms of styles, but also in terms of format too and
whilst having an ipod with 18,000 songs on it, is good when you’re on the move,
music is something that should be ‘experienced’. There is need to get back to basics and reconnect
with it and that is where vinyl excels for me.
Trends are invariably cyclical, but with vinyl sales increasing
exponentially, I cannot get enough of it. Which leads me on to today’s vinyl
corner and why it is so gratifying for me, to share my thoughts on awesome vinyl
with you guys. In the hope you’ll be
convinced to shed the bread for some killer wax.

Released
on 31 October 2013, In The Company of Serpents, delivered ‘Of The Flock,’ their
second official release. A doom/sludge
two-piece from Denver, Colorado, they formed in early 2011, when
vocalist/guitarist Grant Netzorg met drummer JJ Anselmi at a show their former
bands were playing. Following the release of their S/T release in 2012 on
cassette (limited to 300), as well as the digital release, Joseph Weller Myer
took over on drums.

This
leads us to the present. Being
unfamiliar with the band myself, what drew me to the band was the ‘Of The
Flock’ Limited edition vinyl. Never
judge a book by its cover, I hear you cry.
Well carry on reading folks!! Pressed on clouded black/white vinyl, with
artwork by Mike Lawrence Illustration, the album and sleeve comes housed in a
custom black-on-black envelope hand sealed with signet wax. This thing is just fucking beautiful. Immediately I was drawn to the record, based
upon how it looked aesthetically. But
this isn’t style over substance, far from it in fact.

Speaking
with Grant from ITCOS, I got the sense that this package was borne from the
band’s love for music, but also their love of the vinyl format. Indeed he said that they always wanted to put
out a cool and unique release that would stand up to the sorts of things that
labels such as Southern Lord release.
Hell, I hadn’t even heard the music yet and I was sold. (By the way
Grant, you succeeded in spades my friend.)

Pirate
press thought it was so damn cool, they named it their vinyl of the week. Not bad eh?!

The
vinyl is limited to 475 pieces too and that is also the attraction to vinyl,
you’re part of an exclusive club, who post pictures, celebrate music and tell
their friends, who in turn most likely add it to their ever increasing ‘must
purchase’ list. Harking back to the days
of tape trading and the cassette culture, whereby music was recorded, shared
and distributed amongst friends around the world, spreading the love of
music. If indeed they liked the music, a
diehard fan, would most likely buy it.

Someone
recently said to me, ‘sometimes vinyl is just a nice thing to have’, and
therein is the attraction. Vinyl looks
cool, sounds great and it is kinda labour intensive, but in a good way. You have to invest in it, not just by way of
handing over your cash but you have to invest in it physically too. Get the vinyl, pull out the sleeve, take out
the wax, put it on the player, put the needle on it and then wait 20 mins and
do it again, whilst looking at the gatefold or lyrics. It is interactive, aesthetic and positively
pornographic at times. Obviously it helps if the music slays too.

Thankfully
not only does ‘Of The Flock’ look badass but it sounding fucking huge too, so
let us concentrate on that. Kicking off
with ‘Ash Swamp’, this acts as a segue to the first bludgeoning trauma of
‘Craven’, it is an acoustic intro of sorts, drenched in southern flavour,
setting the scene like a haze of sunshine glistening, light rays bending to
produce a displaced image of a distant object, a juggernaut of sound which is
about to displace your jaw.

‘Craven’
spews forth with venom, you’re met with blasting drums and galloped riffs,
guitars tuned down and drums sounding live and percussive, accentuated by a mix
that is very lo fi, as if the quality has been degraded somehow. It sounds very raw and that is what is
immediately striking about the opening refrain. That and the fact I feel the
presence of Al Jourgensen in the riffing department, playing thrash but in the tone
of Steve Brooks. Ministry crossed with
Floor. Good Flava, y’all!!

The
thrashing pace immediately subsides into a nonchalant, almost laid back
groove. You know the type, Fu Manchu are
the masters of it. Swaggering in manner, like some ostentatious display of
arrogance. It is the type that just gets your body rocking, the perfect lullaby,
albeit this is likely to paralyze. Bucketloads
of fuzz and repititious riffs are the order of the day, hell if I wasn’t
mistaken, a Godflesh comparison wouldn’t be an entirely kooky comparison. What this band display is raw unbridled leaden
riffs, the type that slap your face raw.
Indeed they overwhelm or oppress you severely. In the vocal department Grant is perfect,
with a barked flavour to his delivery, brusque and explosive. Almost acerbic,
the type to sour any atmosphere. You’re Not convinced about the record, yet?!!
Continue.

‘Blood
from Stone’ kicks off with a slow arpeggio, then it is onwards with the
brutalisation, like your arse has been handed to you on a plate. ITCOS explode like a firework in the face
with massive riffs, so huge the din perforates your eardrums. This is nasty outlandish shit!! I mean these jams are positively feral, like
an untamed wild dog lusting for flesh.
This is bastardised sludge doom and certainly there is a depravity to
the guitars, reminiscent of St. Louis hate mongers Fister, with a side order of
fuzz from ‘Dopethrone’ era Electric Wizard.
Hell, throw in the collapsing riffs of Yob and that pretty much
encapsulates ITCOS’ sound. All the while
the backbeat of the metronomic skin assault of the drums would make even Ed
Gein seem like a pussy.

To
my ears ‘Of The Flock’ has an industrialised tone in terms of production, like
it was recorded in some seedy dungeon, ‘where prisoners whine and piss their
clothes, and the torture never stops’. (Frank Zappa) The record has that tune low, play slow sensibility and yet there are
smatterings of thrash too, just check
out the last ¾ of this track and the galloped riffs are straight out of the
Hanneman text book. RIP brother.

‘Of
The Flock’ the track starts clean and very bass heavy on the low strong, the drums sound almost
reverbed, dare I say Endtroducing era DJ
Shadow? Yes goddam it, I will, ‘cause
that is exactly how they sound. Kick ass
album! It doesn’t take long before the earth starts to crumble under the
enormity of riffs, this time a double tracking of guitars combines and is used
brilliantly to produce a weighty mass of distortion and repetitive riff that
Tommy Victor is known for. Chorus, Whose Fist is this Anyway? Enough said. If this band was to arm wrestle with the best of them in term of the
riffs, these fuckers would go ‘over the top’.
Shit movie, but appropriate reference point nonetheless. These sons of bitches have it dialled make no
mistake. I speak less of the vocals but
that is not to say that they are not good, in fact they sit nicely within the
wall of sound and are akin to a raging Scott Kelly, permeating your
consciousness, like molten lava corroding all in its path.

‘Untied/Culling
Essence from the Void’, throws us back to where we started with acoustic
guitars. An arpeggio which is then turned up to 11 when the abhorence of the
baritone kicks in with full effect. ‘Initiate, full force heaviosity.’ Roger that captain!! Again
there is double tracking to the guitars, it pervades your senses and the
abomination that confronts us, is blissfully bleak and repugnant. Saving some of the best riffs for the
finality of the record. What ITCOS present with ‘Of The Flock’ is 30 mins of some of the most impure, indecent and coarse
noise that these ears have heard for some time and even to the last minute of
the track, they still arm their weapons to pulverise. I am literally addicted to the record and
with junk this good, I am literally running out of veins. My withdrawal ain’t gonna pleasant. Now stop whining like a bitch and go buy this
thing. Support DIY!!

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